104
THE PALAEOLITHIC PERIOD
which were produced in them by the sun's rays, in Palaeolithic
times, have been preserved, having been filled up and covered
with loam. There are sometimes strewn with the flakes result-
ing from the manufacture of implements.
On the accompanying sketch map of the Thames Basin, I
have shewn the chief localities at which Palaeolithic implements
have been found. Those places at which the actual working sites
of Palaeolithic man have been discovered are indicated by dots,
while those which have yielded the characteristic tongue shaped
weapons are indicated by small circles.
The most westerly locality with which I am acquainted is
Wolvercote,6 near Oxford, where Bell obtained one or two
tongue-shaped implements, together with remains of urus and
elephant. More recently the same gentleman has made a large
discovery in this district of which, however, I have no details to
hand.
Proceeding along the main valley eastwards, the next locality
is Wallingford from which Sir John Evans (op. cit.) has
recorded several of the characteristic implements.
An excellent summary of the discoveries in the Reading
district has been made by Shrubsole.7 On the north bank, in a
pit near Caversham, at 114 feet above the present level of the
river, he has obtained a large number of the tongue-shaped
weapons from a bed of gravel resting on chalk. He concludes
that they could not have been made far from the spot upon
which they were found. He also mentions the finding of a
horse's tooth in the same deposit. At Shiplake, about three
miles distant, he found specimens at a slightly lower level.
Turning to the south side, he mentions obtaining, in Reading
itself, numerous specimens of the discoidal axe-heads from gravel
overlying the Palaeogene clays. Together with these he found
flakes which had been used as scrapers and two fragments of
bone "which had been cut as if by a flint implement, which,
when put together, are seen to have formed part of the same
bone which had evidently been split before it became embedded
in the gravel." From the same bed of drift, which varies from
14 to 19 feet in thickness, he obtained remains of elephant,
rhinoceros and horse.
6 A. M. Bell, "Palaeolithic Remains at Wolvercote," Antiquary xxx.
7 O. A. Shrubsole "On the Valley Gravels about Reading." Quart. Journ Geol. Soc.
xlvi. (1890).